RicoS321

Does any club feature strongly for Scotland? Looking at the last u19s for example, half the players are in England and the rest belong to different clubs. Boyd is in it, as our representative in that regard. I can't find much on the u17s, I'm guessing that Masson and Carrol would be involved, with both at one point rumoured to be off down south too. It seems reasonable to say that we should be well represented, but I don't think anyone is, which suggests that young players are moving around a lot more.

Of course there will have been youth players that are better than Ambrose or Yengi, but they can be better than our shitest signings without being good enough still. The thing about youth players is that we know whether they are good enough or not (generally speaking), whereas players we've signed are comparatively unknown. Being better than the shite isn't a reason to play youth players, because they might have deficiencies in physical areas, whilst also being not good enough. I'm not totally sure what the benchmark of a successful youth development would be. One player per season? That would mean that you should have two or three minimum that have come through the youth system in the team. We have Milne and Lobban. Probably one short.

I don't think so. Shankland was better before we signed him. He also had the physique that had a chance of making it. Bavidge would be better compared to Anderson.

Shouldn't have said anything

We seem to be talking about different things. I thought we were speaking about strikers. I don't disagree that we have been poor in our transitioning of youth to first team. Personally, I think the club should go with quotas, and make it public so that fans can't complain when a youngster who possibly isn't up to it is getting minutes.

I was responding in context to Bavidge. When he signed his three year deal with us, Lewis Pirie (the striker with more potential) signed for Leeds. What happens when they go down there and languish on their B team bench, I guess is irrelevant. Again, we're specifically speaking about strikers, and there aren't many who came through the youth teams playing in the SPFL (our very own Bruce Anderson of course). If they show any potential in that position, they get snapped up. Even Wilson at Hearts, which is a strange one. Bowie went to Fulham from Raith. The Huns and Tims have both lost strikers in recent times. A bit like goalkeepers, it's a difficult position to break through in.

They're pretty thin on the ground in this country. Any young striker showing enough promise will now likely get snapped up down south. Pirie for example.

No surprise really. Never looked like he had the attributes to make it in the premier. Hopefully he'll go on to make a decent try of it elsewhere, as he seemed to have a decent attitude.

Fairly straightforward win for them to be honest. We looked a bit like a team of new players. Not many positive points for us. Would need to see more of the midfield two to judge, but neither looked better than those let go today. I think the shape is problematic, and has been consistently under Leven. It's a lopsided 4-2-3-1, where the right hand side is very narrow and the winger (Olusanya or Bilalovic) is told to drift inside, even off the ball. It leaves us completely exposed, whether it's Jensen, Devlin or Lobban. I don't think it's particularly necessary either. Not sure about that back two. Need's must I guess, but it doesn't look good.

We've got a lot of very stupid players, who seem to have zero game sense at all, constantly giving away stupid free kicks or getting drawn in unnecessarily (see that goal just now). Lazetic has been the stupidest today though.

Geiger knackered? Probably shouldn't have been playing ninety. He didn't look like he had it in him.

Saving the proper subs for Wednesday?

Nisbet been good today, although he should probably steer clear of the defending. Midfield looks okay, although I think Geiger can do more going back the way. He doesn't seem to have the workrate of Aouchiche so far. Cameron been okay, as has Keskinen, but nothing brilliant from either of them. Jensen fine, Frame struggling defensively. McIntyre looks good positionally, but looks very slow on the turn, which could be a big issue. Not sure about Morrison at all. The right side is an issue. I'm not going to blame Olusanya entirely for that though. When we've played Bilalovic recently, the problems have been exactly the same. I was blaming Bilalovic for not tracking his man and being very narrow, but perhaps it's actually a tactic. It means giving one of their best players, Longelo, complete freedom to drive forward, which I think is a mistake. The up-side to this approach is that we should be able to exploit the area left behind to get Olusanya driving at pace. Unfortunately his touch is fucking awful, and there are greater problems than his lack of marking! I'd hook him at halftime. I thought Milanovic did well tracking back the other week and might be worth just chucking in. He's pish in attack of course, but as long as he remains disciplined, it'd be an improvement. Which is not a compliment.

Agreed. I just wonder if doing it from the start might mean us missing out on the chance to bring him on and do it later when others are knackered. The classic Morris issue!

He wasn't particularly good at that with St Mirren, his best work was balls over the top and harassing defenders, so hopefully we've spent two weeks training him to cut the ball back. The biggest problem will be his lack of defensive abilities. Not convinced he has the temperament to track his man.

Oops. Chubby fingers. 4-2-3-1.

Fairly straightforward 4-2-3-2 I'm guessing. Be interesting to see how the two new midfielders get on. I suspect the defence might be a touch weak, but nothing new there. Not convinced that Olusanya is a wide player, but not many other options.

New goalie starts. Wild.

Aye, investment basically. It's also not really a London thing.

Surely his loon's loon?

Fuck off

Why, has Dave MacPherson died?

Being brought in to help the Hun settle in his six month loan period IMO. Welcome back Doc

Fyvie was never the same after his injury at Alloa. He played a decent number of games for us, and I don't think anyone was disappointed with him when he left, especially as he got a very surprising punt at it down South with a decent Wigan side. They obviously had only watched the clips when he first came through and not the stuff in between under Brown. He seemed to play well any time I saw him for Cove. He talks well when on Red TV, and obviously has a lot of love for the club. Hope he has a good retirement.